Bible / Scripture Study Archives

ST14 – Seeking Truth with Sharon Doran – “Genesis” Opening Lecture and Explanation of Seeking Truth – Discerning Hearts

Episode 14 – Seeking Truth with Sharon Doran. “Genesis” Opening Lecture and Explanation of Seeking Truth

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Sharon Doran serves as the teaching director of “Seeking Truth.” An experienced Bible Study teacher, Sharon has a passion forscripture that will motivate and challenge you to immerse yourself in God’s Word and apply His message to your every day life.

This lecture was given on the feast day of Our Lady of Sorrows and in her opening lecture, Sharon gives honor to Mary, who always points us to her Son, Jesus. Sharon also highlights the importance of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and gives an engaging overview of its origin and authorship.

“Seeking Truth” is an in depth Catholic Bible Study, commissioned by the Archdiocese of Omaha in response to John Paul II’s call to the New Evangelization as well as Pope Benedict XVI’s exhortation for all Catholics to study scripture. To learn more go to:www.seekingtruth.net

ST13 – Seeking Truth with Sharon Doran – John Chapter 20 “Doubting Thomas”

Episode 13 – Seeking Truth with Sharon Doran, hosted by Bruce McGregor. John Chapter 20 “Doubting Thomas”

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Episode 13 – Sharon and Bruce discuss “Doubting Thomas”. John Chapter 20. Why Thomas was allowed to touch Jesus and Mary Magdalene was not. The significance of the actual wound in Jesus’ side and implications for the Church. Why this interaction between Jesus and Thomas is more important than what we think. What is ahead for Thomas, but also what is ahead for the Body of Christ.

Beyond Words with Mark Hart – The Fourth Sunday of Advent – Discerning Hearts

Mark Hart is an author, speaker, director and teacher, Mark’s work both written and spoken, is known across the country and world. While he serves as the Vice President of LIFE TEEN, he is known to tens of thousands simply as the “Bible Geek ®” Mark passionately echoes the gospel to all he encounters. He is as deep as he is funny, and his love for his wife and daughters is second only to his immense love for Jesus Christ.

Beyond Words with Mark Hart – The Third Sunday of Advent – Discerning Hearts

ST11 – Seeking Truth with Sharon Doran – John 20 “Making All Things New”.

Episode 11 – Seeking Truth with Sharon Doran, hosted by Bruce McGregor. Ep 11 – John 20 “Making All Things New”

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Episode 11 – Sharon and Bruce discuss John 20 – Old and New Testament meet in an extraordinary way.

ST10 – Seeking Truth with Sharon Doran – Holy Week – from the perspective of history

Episode 10 – Seeking Truth with Sharon Doran, hosted by Bruce McGregor. Ep 10 – Holy Week – from the perspective of history

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Episode 10 – Sharon and Bruce discuss the state of the world during Holy Week. What is the historical backdrop that set the stage for the events of Holy Week. The conditions in the world at that time. What was happening culturally and politically….and spiritually.

ST9- Seeking Truth with Sharon Doran – “Do You Want to be Healed?” John Chapter 5

Episode 9 – Seeking Truth with Sharon Doran, hosted by Bruce McGregor. Ep 9- “Do you want to be healed?”, John Chapter 5

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Episode 9- John Chapter 5 Sharon and Bruce discuss the pool of Bethesda and the healing of the paralytic. Jesus is announcing a great blessing for all the world.

ST8- Seeking Truth with Sharon Doran – “The Samaritan Woman at the Well”, John Chapter 4

Episode 8 – Seeking Truth with Sharon Doran, hosted by Bruce McGregor. Ep 8- “The Samaritan Woman at the Well”, John Chapter 4

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Episode 8 – John Chapter 4 Sharon and Bruce discuss the importance of the Samarian area, Jacob’s well, the animosity between the Samaritans and the Jews, and the gender bias against women.

Pope Benedict on Prayer 12 – Psalm 136: “Man Forgets but God Remains Faithful””

VATICAN CITY, 19 OCT 2011 (VIS) – Some 20,000 pilgrims attended Benedict XVI’s general audience, which was held this morning in St. Peter’s Square. Continuing a series of catecheses dedicated to the Psalms, the Holy Father focused his attention on Psalm 136, “a great hymn of praise which celebrates the Lord in the many and repeated manifestations of His goodness down human history”.

The Pope explained how, in Jewish tradition, this Psalm is sung at the end of the Passover supper, and therefore it was probably also pronounced by Jesus at the last Passover He celebrated with His disciples. The text enumerates God’s many interventions in favour of His people “and each proclamation of a salvific action by the Lord is answered by an antiphon reiterating the main cause for praise: God’s eternal love, a love which, according to the Hebrew term used, implies faithfulness, mercy, goodness, grace and tenderness”.

God is first presented as “He Who ‘does great wonders’, first among them that of the creation: heaven, earth and stars. … With the creation the Lord shows Himself in all His goodness and beauty. He commits Himself to life, revealing a desire for good whence all other salvific actions arise”.

The Psalm goes on to consider God’s manifestations in history, evoking the great moment when the Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt. The forty years of wandering in the desert were “a decisive period for Israel which, allowing itself to be guided by the Lord, learned to live on faith, obedient and docile to the laws of God. Those were difficult years, marked by the harshness of life in the desert, but also a happy time of confidence and filial trust in the Lord”.

“The history of Israel has known exhilarating moments of joy, of fullness of life, of awareness of the presence of God and His salvation”, said the Pope. “But it has also been marked by episodes of sin, painful periods of darkness and profound affliction. Many were the adversaries from whom the Lord liberated His people”. The Psalm speaks of these events, in particular the Babylonian exile and the destruction of Jerusalem, “when it seemed that Israel had lost everything, even its own identity, even its trust in the Lord. However, God remembers, and frees. The salvation of Israel and of all mankind is bound to the Lord’s faithfulness, to His memory. While man forgets easily, God remains faithful: His memory is a precious casket containing that ‘love which endures forever’ about which our Psalm speaks”.

The Psalm concludes by reminding us that God feeds His creatures, “caring for life and giving bread. … In the fullness of time the Son of God became man to give life, for the salvation of each one of us; and He continues to gives Himself as bread in the mystery of the Eucharist, so as to draw us into His covenant, which makes us children. So great is God’s merciful goodness, the sublimity of His ‘love which endures forever'”. In conclusion the Pope read a quote from the First Letter of St. John, advising the faithful to bear it in mind in their prayers: “See what love the Father has given us, that that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are”.
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From New Advent:

raise the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endures for ever.

2 Praise the God of gods: for his mercy endures for ever.
3 Praise the Lord of lords: for his mercy endures for ever.
4 Who alone does great wonders: for his mercy endures for ever.
5 Who made the heavens in understanding: for his mercy endures for ever.
6 Who established the earth above the waters: for his mercy endures for ever.
7 Who made the great lights: for his mercy endures for ever.
8 The sun to rule the day: for his mercy endures for ever.
9 The moon and the stars to rule the night: for his mercy endures for ever.
10 Who smote Egypt with their firstborn: for his mercy endures for ever.
11 Who brought out Israel from among them: for his mercy endures for ever.
12 With a mighty hand and with a stretched out arm: for his mercy endures for ever.
13 Who divided the Red Sea into parts: for his mercy endures for ever.
14 And brought out Israel through the midst thereof: for his mercy endures for ever.
15 And overthrew Pharao and his host in the Red Sea: for his mercy endures for ever.
16 Who led his people through the desert: for his mercy endures for ever.
17 Who smote great kings: for his mercy endures for ever.
18 And slew strong kings: for his mercy endures for ever.
19 Sehon king of the Amorrhites: for his mercy endures for ever.
20 And Og king of Basan: for his mercy endures for ever.
21 And he gave their land for an inheritance: for his mercy endures for ever.
22 For an inheritance to his servant Israel: for his mercy endures for ever.
23 For he was mindful of us in our affliction: for his mercy endures for ever.
24 And he redeemed us from our enemies: for his mercy endures for ever.
25 Who gives food to all flesh: for his mercy endures for ever.
26 Give glory to the God of heaven: for his mercy endures for ever. Give glory to the Lord of lords: for his mercy endures for ever.

St. Matthew, the tax collector, the apostle, the martyr for Christ….

St. Matthew, one of the twelve Apostles, is the author of the first Gospel.Son of Alphaeus, he lived at Capenaum on Lake Genesareth. He was a Roman tax collector, a position equated with collaboration with the enemy by those from whom he collected taxes. Jesus’ contemporaries were surprised to see the Christ with a traitor, but Jesus explained that he had come “not to call the just, but sinners.” Matthew’s Gospel is given pride of place in the canon of the New Testament, and was written to convince Jewish readers that their anticipated Messiah had come in the person of Jesus. He preached among the Jews for 15 years; his audiences may have included the Jewish enclave in Ethiopia, and places in the East.

Listen to none other than Mark Hart the Bible Geek about the great work of St. Matthew…of course, the Gospel according to St. Matthew

Personal note, my favorite Matthew passage (from Chapter 25): “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.‘ Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’ And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’ Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’ Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’ He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’ And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”